The Holy Cross men's basketball team continues their season opening road swing facing a stiff test at No. 8 nationally-ranked and Big 12 foe BYU at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 9 p.m. EST before taking on fellow Big 12 school Utah in the Huntsman Center on Monday, Nov. 10 at 9 p.m. EST.
 
Both contests will stream live through ESPN+ with Dave McCann (play-by-play), Blaine Fowler (analyst) and Jarom Jordan (sideline) on the call for the BYU game and Chris Sylvester (play-by-play) and Joe Cravens (analyst) on the call for the Utah contest.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT HOLY CROSS (0-1, 0-0 PL): 

• Holy Cross returns to action following a close 89-79 loss to Providence Monday evening in their season opener. The Crusaders trailed by 20 points midway through the second half, but dropped the deficit to six with 59 seconds to go before the Friars iced the game. Sophomore guard Tyler Boston scored a game and career-high 25 points going 10-for-11 (90.9 percent) at the line with a contest-best six assists.
• The Crusaders made 11 three-pointers in the game at Providence on Monday. In 2024-25, Holy Cross ranked 10th in the NCAA in three-point percentage (38.7 percent) and had 17 games with 10 or more three-point conversions.
• Holy Cross lost some key contributors to last season's team including the 2025 Patriot League Rookie of the Year as well as four year Crusader Caleb Kenney to graduation. Kenney, the 2024 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Patriot League All-Defensive Team selection and the 2025 Patriot League Award of Outstanding Leadership and Character award winner is the only player in program history with 1,000 career points, 500 career rebounds, 100 career blocks and 100 career steals.
• The Crusaders have played only three games against Big 12 Conference foes since the league formed in 1996-97. Holy Cross stands 0-3 in those contests, falling three times to Kansas. Against the 16 schools which are current members of the Big 12, the Crusaders own an all-time record of 9-11 (0-1 vs. Arizona, 1-1 vs. Arizona State, 0-0 vs. Baylor, 0-0 vs. BYU, 0-1 vs. Central Florida, 3-1 vs. Cincinnati, 0-0 vs. Colorado, 0-0 vs. Houston, 1-0 vs. Iowa State, 1-3 against Kansas, 1-1 vs. Kansas State, 2-0 against Oklahoma, 0-0 vs. Oklahoma State, 0-0 vs. TCU, 0-0 vs. Texas Tech, 0-2 vs. Utah and 0-1 vs. West Virginia).
• Holy Cross faces its first ranked opponent (BYU) since traveling to No. 10 Creighton and falling to the Blue Jays 94-65 on Nov. 14, 2022. Holy Cross has lost six straight games against ranked teams. Holy Cross' last victory over a ranked foe came on Nov. 16, 2014, when it downed No. 25 Harvard 58-57. Prior to that win over the Crimson, the Crusaders had lost 29 consecutive games against ranked opponents since defeating No. 8 Providence 68-67 on March 5, 1977, in the championship game of the ECAC Tournament.
• Holy Cross climbed 12 slots from 352nd to 340th in the 2026 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings ranking 302nd in offensive rating and 356th in defensive rating.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS (1-0, 0-0 Big 12): 

• BYU began their 2025-26 campaign upending Villanova 71-66 in the Hall of Same Series – Las Vegas. AJ Dybantsa scored a team-high 21 points going 9-of-18 (50.0 percent) with six rebounds and three assists in his collegiate debut while Ritchie Saunders added 15 points and Robert Wright III tacked on 14 markers.
• BYU finished the 2024-25 season with a 26-10, 14-6 Big 12 record making a run to the NCAA Sweet 16 before dropping a 113-88 contest to no. 7 seeded Alabama.
• Dybantsa, a projected Top-3 NBA Draft Prospect was named an AP Preseason All-American, he was also named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Preseason Watch List, the NABC Player of the Year Preseason Watch List, the Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Men's College Player of the Year Watch List and the Oscar Robertson Trophy Preseason Watch List.
• Saunders joined his teammate, Dybantsa as a Preseason All-Big 12 honoree as well as Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Men's College Player of the Year Watch List and the Oscar Robertson Trophy Preseason Watch List.  Saunders was also named to the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Preseason Watch List
• Wright III was a Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Preseason Watch List honoree. Cousy, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, played for Holy Cross from 1947-50 winning the 1947 NCAA National Championship while finishing his Crusader career with 1,775 career points which ranks seventh in program history.
• The Cougars rank 17th in the 2026 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings ranking 8th in offensive rating and 47th in defensive rating.

LAST TIME THEY MET: 

• This is the first meeting between the two programs.

THE RUNNIN' UTES AT A GLANCE (1-0, 0-0 Big 12): 

• The Runnin' Utes won their first game of the season downing San Jose State 84-75 in the Huntsman Center. Four players scored in double figures including Seydou Traore who scored a game-high 23 points knocking down five threes and coming away with four steals.
• Before batting the Crusaders, Utah will square off against Weber State on Saturday, Nov. 8. The Utes open the season with six straight home games.
• Runnin' Utes head coach Alex Jensen is in his first year leading the program after being named the 17th head coach in program history on March 6, 2025. A member of the Runnin' Utes 1998 Final Four team, Jensen returns to Utah following two seasons as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks after serving 10 years on the Utah Jazz coaching staff.
• Utah was selected to finish 13th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches' Poll, Utah was also selected to finish 13th in the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll.
• The Runnin' Utes rank 81st in the 2026 Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings ranking 72nd in offensive rating and 94th in defensive rating.

LAST TIME THEY MET: 

• Holy Cross is 0-2 in the series against Utah with their only meetings coming in 1959 and 1988.
• Utah took both of those contests beating the Crusaders 92-84 on Dec. 30, 1959 and 97-84 on Dec. 28, 1988.

 
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